Shades of the Bellesiles affair

From The Washington Post:

Archives: historian tampered with Lincoln pardon
The National Archives says a longtime Abraham Lincoln researcher has been caught telling a big lie about Honest Abe.

The Archives said Monday that historian Thomas P. Lowry, 78, of Woodbridge, has acknowledged that he used a fountain pen with special ink to change the date on a presidential pardon issued by Lincoln to a military deserter, making it appear that Lowry had uncovered a document of historical significance.

Specifically, Lowry changed the date of the pardon from April 14, 1864 to April 14, 1865. The Archive said the change made it look as if Lowry had discovered a document that was perhaps Lincoln's final official act before he was assassinated that evening at Ford's Theatre.

Lowry's purported discovery was hailed by historians when he came forward in 1998. At the time, a Civil War expert with the Archives said Lowry had made "a unique and substantial contribution to Lincoln research and to the study of the Civil War."

The National Archives gave the document prominent display, putting it on tour along with other important Lincoln documents.

But for several years, archivist Thomas Plante had been troubled by the document. The '5' appeared to be darker than the rest of the document and was perhaps covering another number. Plante then checked the document against an authoritative collection of Lincoln's writings, which showed the pardon of a Union Army deserter named Patrick Murphy had occurred in 1864. At that point, Plante took his concerns to the Archives' Office of Inspector General, where an investigator shared Plante's suspicions.

The Archives said it then contacted Lowry to try and determine what happened.

Now, nothing that Lowry has done can be trusted. And the Bellesiles in the post title, this moke has quite the past.